John Park Mims , M.D., passed away peacefully at home on April 4th. To celebrate his love of God’s creation in the outdoors, the family will hold a simple graveside service in Oakwood Cemetery, Tuscumbia, at 2:00 pm on Friday, April 6th, to be followed by visitation from 3:00-5:00 in the First Baptist Church fellowship hall, 203 North Dickson Street, Tuscumbia 35674.
He was predeceased by his wife of 68 years, Mary Bedford Rogers Mims, and is survived by children Shelton Park Mims (Kim) of Huntsville, Rosemary Fisk (Howard Walthall) of Birmingham, and Emelyn Carlson (Terry) of Tuscaloosa; grandchildren Meredith Owen Mims (Thomas McClure), Gregory Mims Fisk, Daniel James Fisk, John Terry Carlson, Jr. (DeLauné), Christopher Norman Carlson, and Marianne Carlson Pearce (Taylor); and great-grandsons John Morrow Carlson and Landry Bedford Carlson. The oldest of seven children, he is also survived by siblings Dan Mims (Martha), Bobby Ralph Mims, Clyde Mims (Sue), Martha Traywick, and numerous beloved nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, Shelton Park Mims and Alma Owen Mims, sister Dorothy Mims DeVaughn, and brother Claude Mims.
Born November 10, 1920 in Chilton County, Alabama, and raised on a farm near Billingsley, he had completed one year at Auburn University when World War II broke out and he enlisted in the Naval Air Corps as a pilot. He served primarily in the South and Mid Pacific, where he flew PBY-5 supply planes to remote locations and conducted submarine patrols and search and rescue. After the War, he was assigned to fly supplies into Europe and northern Africa. He returned to Auburn University after retiring from the Navy as a lieutenant, senior grade.
After graduation from Auburn in 1949, he entered the University of Alabama School of Medicine, where he graduated in 1954. After internships at Vanderbilt and University of Pennsylvania, he completed a residency in General Surgery at Vanderbilt with additional training in obstetrics and women’s surgery.
Family members Bitsy and Lawrence Beck persuaded him to consider the Shoals area for private practice, and he opened a clinic in downtown Tuscumbia in 1958 where he treated patients for almost forty years. Perhaps no service was as enjoyable to him as his role on the Deshler High School sidelines as team doctor. For his 96th birthday, he was made an honorary graduate of DHS and honored during halftime of the last home game.
In his retirement he pursued his love of the outdoors through forestry projects and woodworking, serving on the board of the Alabama TREASURE Forest Association, planting trees, and hosting schoolchildren and forestry groups on his farm on Hawk Pride Mountain.
A longtime deacon at First Baptist Church of Tuscumbia, he also served on the Samford University Board of Trustees and did volunteer medical missions in Nigeria in 1996 with equipment available from the closing of his clinic. Helen Keller Hospital Foundation recently gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Serving as pallbearers are his four grandsons, listed above, Taylor Pearce and Thomas McClure. The family expresses their appreciation to Dr. Mims’ faithful neighbors and friends Sara and Harlon King, and Connie and Mark McIlwain, for their unwavering, caring support; to extraordinary caregivers Cassandra Sartain, and from Brother’s Keeper, ChiQuita Owens and Raven Burt; and the excellent team from Southern Hospice, Jami Terry, Misty Wilson, and Dr. Jack McLendon.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers, memorials be made to First Baptist Church of Tuscumbia; Deshler High School Athletics, 200 N. Commons St. E/ Tuscumbia, AL 35674; the Mims Family Scholarship, Samford University, 800 Lakeshore Dr./ Birmingham, AL 35229; or to the charity of choice.
